Nicholas Jameson, from Walkinstown, walked into a lake in Co Tyrone last month after agreeing a suicide pact with 20-year-old Brian McGlade from Omagh.

The Sunday Tribune can reveal that an examination of the 24-year-old's personal computer has found that Jameson exchanged several emails with the Reverend George Exoo. Exoo appeared in a US court on Friday in an effort to stop his extradition to Ireland, where he is facing charges for assisting a 49year-old woman to die in January 2002.

Gardai had been aware that Jameson was a member of the infamous alt. suicide. holiday internet newsgroup which informs people about the best way to commit suicide. They did not know that he was communicating with the West Virginia-based Exoo who, by his own admission, has helped hundreds of people take their own lives.

A source said: "Nicholas Jameson's computer was taken from his house following his suicide and forensically examined by garda technical experts before being sent to Northern Ireland where the investigation into the double suicide is being run from.

"The technical people have trawled through hundreds of emails and have determined that Nicholas had gone to the Reverend George Exoo looking for his help about a month before he died. The pair sent each other nearly a dozen emails and Exoo was offering Nicholas advice but was not offering to help him die or anything like that.

"They mainly wrote about what Nicholas was feeling and Exoo was offering him reassurance and told him that he had to be sure before he took any major decisions. They were in touch for a couple of weeks but contact stopped rather abruptly, " the source added.

Jameson first posted a message on the alt. suicide. holiday site last St Patrick's Day under the pen name 'Alex'. He was seeking a suicide partner in Ireland and wrote about how he planned to go to Eastbourne to throw himself off a cliff. He wrote that "only people who are 100% committed to committing suicide with a partner need apply! !"

He eventually made contact with Brian McGlade and the two committed suicide after leaving notes explaining their actions to their families.

Gardai want to charge 64-year-old Exoo in relation to the death of Rosemary Toole Gilhooley. Exoo and his assistant travelled from West Virginia in January 2002 to a rented apartment in Donnybrook where they met Toole Gilhooley. They sat with her while she took heavy painkillers and put a plastic bag over her head. Exoo has denied actively participating in the death.

Assisted suicide is illegal in this country and carries a potential jail sentence of 14 years.

Just hours before he was arrested by the FBI last month, Exoo told the Sunday Tribune that he would be prepared to help other Irish people to die in the future.

"People would have to come here [West Virginia] and I can say I live adjacent to two of the three states in the US where assisting a suicide is not illegal. They would go to North Carolina. I think that would be the logical place.

"Oh sure I'd talk to them. Sure I'd look at any situation and I do have other people that I work with who would be able to travel overseas but I personally can't do it . . . because of Ireland, I can't leave the US."

A US judge adjourned Exoo's case on Friday to consider whether his alleged crime warranted extradition to Ireland.